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nwhikerSalt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us by Michael Moss.
I've read three books recently talking about the same subject: the one above, the much less complete (and much more... fluffy) Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner, and a third one that was so poorly written, I can't remember the title, and I'm not sure I finished it.
Subject: hello, WTF are these substances that the industry is calling "food"? And why do we continue to eat them?
I'm not going to review Pandora's Lunchbox: while an interesting and sometimes funny read, ultimately, it was a lightweight one compared to Moss' book. They treated the same subjects (crazy Kellogg and the genesis of the "food" that is extruded paste, Howard Moskowitz, and his bliss point and sugar level optimisation, and Lunchables, to name three), but in each case, I think, Moss when into deeper detail. Warner wrote an easier to read book, but the research and depth go to Moss, and if I had to recommend one book on the subject, his would be it. At this point. Heh.
That said, and this is unique to Warner's book, she dives into the whole additive business, so her book is worth reading for that alone.
Before I say much of anything, I should say that I despise Micheal Pollan and his preachy, holier-than-thou, condescending books, so while the comparisons between his and these could be made, they won't be.
Overall, these books had the same theme: the processed food we eat has very little to do any more with the basic products it's derived from. In addition, that these new foods are carefully crafted -ok, designed or engineered- to make us eat them, eat more of them, and not care about how much of them we eat. They hide the reality of what they are and what they are made of, and food the body into eating more. That, and they're -ahem- full of fat, salt, and sugar.
Moss is very good about putting forth the idea that fat, sugar, and salt are essential to processed foods. Remove them, and people will not eat the foods, because they -the foods, not the people- will taste and smell gross, and have an icky texture. It's not just the public that is "addicted" to these foods, Moss points out, it's the food industry itself.
So we have, essentially, an intractable problem when it comes to processed foods, which are overwhelmingly unhealthy: they cannot be made healthier, and still get sold.
The solution, very obviously hinted at in the book, is not personal responsibility: the engineering and marketing of these foods makes that an iffy proposal at best, but government intervention. Because self-regulation would put their competitors at a major advantage (which Kraft found out...), no food company is going to try it, especially not give then tyranny of Wall Street's quarterly balance sheets eval, which has also given us the outsourcing of jobs to the poorer parts of the world. Profit above all else.
The food processing companies have changed our palates. This was obliquely gotten into, but one of my pet theories, I know I've discussed this before, but there is an... intensification of taste happening: before you had chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream. Now you have those, but the chocolate has fudge ribboned in, and candy chunks, the vanilla must be extra intense, the strawberry as well. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish? Cheddar isn't good enough: we have to have FLAVR BLASTR EXTREME CHEDDAR!!! As our palates have changed, simpler non processed foods have a hard time competing. In some ways, we expect strawberries to taste like Strawberry! and when they don't... we don't eat them, and add an extra glug of Hershey's Strawberry syrup to our milk.
Overall, I'd recommend it.
The one fact, one that came up in Warner's book as well: food industry execs don't eat the crap their companies produce. This, to me, is telling.
My biggest problems with the book: while full of detail and information, Moss, unlike Warner, is not an engaging writer. The book is a bit dry (could be improved with some gravy... oh wait...) at times. In addition it seems that he believes, as do many people, that only fat people eat crappy processed foods, and appears very clear that fat = eats too much processed food.
I've read three books recently talking about the same subject: the one above, the much less complete (and much more... fluffy) Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal by Melanie Warner, and a third one that was so poorly written, I can't remember the title, and I'm not sure I finished it.
Subject: hello, WTF are these substances that the industry is calling "food"? And why do we continue to eat them?
I'm not going to review Pandora's Lunchbox: while an interesting and sometimes funny read, ultimately, it was a lightweight one compared to Moss' book. They treated the same subjects (crazy Kellogg and the genesis of the "food" that is extruded paste, Howard Moskowitz, and his bliss point and sugar level optimisation, and Lunchables, to name three), but in each case, I think, Moss when into deeper detail. Warner wrote an easier to read book, but the research and depth go to Moss, and if I had to recommend one book on the subject, his would be it. At this point. Heh.
That said, and this is unique to Warner's book, she dives into the whole additive business, so her book is worth reading for that alone.
Before I say much of anything, I should say that I despise Micheal Pollan and his preachy, holier-than-thou, condescending books, so while the comparisons between his and these could be made, they won't be.
Overall, these books had the same theme: the processed food we eat has very little to do any more with the basic products it's derived from. In addition, that these new foods are carefully crafted -ok, designed or engineered- to make us eat them, eat more of them, and not care about how much of them we eat. They hide the reality of what they are and what they are made of, and food the body into eating more. That, and they're -ahem- full of fat, salt, and sugar.
Moss is very good about putting forth the idea that fat, sugar, and salt are essential to processed foods. Remove them, and people will not eat the foods, because they -the foods, not the people- will taste and smell gross, and have an icky texture. It's not just the public that is "addicted" to these foods, Moss points out, it's the food industry itself.
So we have, essentially, an intractable problem when it comes to processed foods, which are overwhelmingly unhealthy: they cannot be made healthier, and still get sold.
The solution, very obviously hinted at in the book, is not personal responsibility: the engineering and marketing of these foods makes that an iffy proposal at best, but government intervention. Because self-regulation would put their competitors at a major advantage (which Kraft found out...), no food company is going to try it, especially not give then tyranny of Wall Street's quarterly balance sheets eval, which has also given us the outsourcing of jobs to the poorer parts of the world. Profit above all else.
The food processing companies have changed our palates. This was obliquely gotten into, but one of my pet theories, I know I've discussed this before, but there is an... intensification of taste happening: before you had chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream. Now you have those, but the chocolate has fudge ribboned in, and candy chunks, the vanilla must be extra intense, the strawberry as well. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish? Cheddar isn't good enough: we have to have FLAVR BLASTR EXTREME CHEDDAR!!! As our palates have changed, simpler non processed foods have a hard time competing. In some ways, we expect strawberries to taste like Strawberry! and when they don't... we don't eat them, and add an extra glug of Hershey's Strawberry syrup to our milk.
Overall, I'd recommend it.
The one fact, one that came up in Warner's book as well: food industry execs don't eat the crap their companies produce. This, to me, is telling.
My biggest problems with the book: while full of detail and information, Moss, unlike Warner, is not an engaging writer. The book is a bit dry (could be improved with some gravy... oh wait...) at times. In addition it seems that he believes, as do many people, that only fat people eat crappy processed foods, and appears very clear that fat = eats too much processed food.
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